


That is what's going on

by DDDaisy



Category: Death Note (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Drama & Romance, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-03-13 06:40:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28649190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DDDaisy/pseuds/DDDaisy
Summary: Halle decided to spend time with her family during Christmas holidays. Mello strolled the streets alone in NYC on Christmas Eve.
Relationships: Halle Lidner | Halle Bullock & Mello | Mihael Keehl, Halle Lidner | Halle Bullock/Mello | Mihael Keehl
Comments: 3
Kudos: 4





	That is what's going on

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Death Note and I don’t make profit from this fiction.

Mello sat at the table with his chin in his right hand, lazily biting off a piece of chocolate. He had been working on the computer for hours after breakfast. He had been writing the fiction lately, exactly, stories – stories he heard from L a long time ago and already constructed. But he was really inefficient today and lost his thought at the Christmas tree in the living room now and then.

"What are you doing?" Three days ago, as soon as Mello had opened the door of the apartment, he saw Halle fiddling with a Christmas tree that was almost as tall as the bedroom door.

"The shop is closing out everything before the Christmas holidays. I convinced the owner to sell me the Christmas tree at the door of the shop, but I didn't expect it to be delivered today." Halle grinned at him as she pressed the small button of the remote control. Little colored lights twining around the tree came on. When Halle pressed the button again, all lights changed into another color.

"Why did you buy it? Didn't you say you were going back to your hometown for Christmas this year?” Mello took off his red leather jacket and hung it on the hanger in the foyer, changing shoes and walking over on cloth slippers.

Near generously gave all SPK members eight days off, thankfully, it started on the 24th December. After an one-hour-long phone call last weekend, Halle learned that her siblings were all going back to hometown this Christmas and decided to spend time with her family on Christmas holidays.

“It’s ages since I went back.” Mello rarely saw such a look of anticipation on Halle's face. She had been in a significantly better mood since then. Mello was amazed to find that Halle had hummed in the kitchen as she fried eggs and made coffee before he got up every morning. She once told him that she was too busy working after college. Considering the risk of her job, she had gradually reduced her contact with her family, which was evident from her use of a false surname. Her siblings were also busy. They had been married and had their own families over the years. It was probably the first opportunity that Halle could reunited with his parents and siblings since she joined CIA.

"Yes, but what does this have to do with me buying a Christmas tree? It’s our tradition. The Christmas tree should be put up at home after Thanksgiving Day.” Halle said as she bit her lips.

 _The living room looks smaller._ Normally, Mello would have blurted out something like this out of habit. He seemed to think of something and licked his lips, swallowing back the words came to his mouth.

"I'll go to the mall after work tomorrow. Will you join me?” Halle blinked and asked.

"Would you still want to go shopping?" Mello asked, frowning. Only the other day Mello had accompanied Halle to the mall twice, said to buy Christmas presents for her nieces and nephews to satisfy kids’ wishes. Mello knew that Halle was actually unwilling to part with his free labor - _Which time did he come back from the mall without bags of stuff? Why did presents for kids include her new clothes and new shoes?_

Early this morning, A suitcase was spread out on the floor, as Halle tried every means to stuff the toy she had bought for her nieces into the full suitcase.

“You’ll miss the train if you keep dawdling.” Mello, who had been sleeping on the sofa, sat up and stared at Halle, covered with a blanket he slept under. It was obvious that Halle didn't mean to wake him. But as a light sleeper, he was still awake.

"Give me a minute. I shouldn’t have forgot this last night.” Halle crouched on the ground, as she pressed the box with one hand, the other hand zipping up the suitcase after long struggle.

“I wonder why you don't drive back. It's just a few hours' drive.” Freshly woken up with messy hair, Mello walked unhurriedly into the bathroom. The room was warm enough that he was wearing thin pajama.

"The weather forecast said there would be heavy snow for a week. I don’t want to drive on the icy roads." Halle began to put on her coat and scarf as she groomed herself before the mirror.

"Shall I drive you to the train station?" Mello poked his head out of the bathroom, muttering with a toothbrush in his mouth.

Halle glanced at the uncleaned toothpaste foam on his corner of mouth and his undereye circles. "No. You'd better get some sleep. You go to bed too late these days. Can you change your routine? Good thing I bought a lot of food to store at home, or I would be worried that you get nothing to eat."

Mello narrowed his eyes and wondered what era Halle was talking about. Even on Christmas Day, there were many restaurants open in New York.

Halle slung her handbag over her shoulder and pushed the door open, as she turned back to him "See you next year then."

Whether it's a holiday or not, every day doesn't make a difference to Mello. He grew up with scheduling and never delayed his daily plans. The room became strangely quiet after Halle left. He tried to focus on the work at hand, but the Christmas tree in the living room was a constant reminder that tonight was Christmas Eve, meanwhile, memories of past Christmas kept popping up uncontrollably in his mind. He thought he needed to go out for some fresh air. It always got dark early in winter. The street lights came on one after another as Mello walked down the street. The district which they lived in was quiet today. When he walked through the neighborhood, he didn’t see a few pedestrians. The laughter sounded clearly, occasionally coming out from the window of the apartment building where warm light could be seen. The bare branches was swaying in the cold wind, as Mello subconsciously tightened the scarf around his neck.

Mello passed a bus stop as a bus stopped in front of him. He got on the bus without thinking, then got off at one of the most lively and prosperous area of Manhattan. This was a completely different scene here, where the windows of department stores were elaborately decorated. A variety of light shows with different themes were on display, accompanied with smart music, getting people in the holiday spirit. The avenues were crowded with tourists coming to NYC for Christmas, whom could be got a glimpse of all kinds of emotions on their faces.

Among the towers stood an enormous Christmas tree, which was decorated with colorful lights and various ornaments. The square where the Christmas tree was located was crowded with people who was taking out their mobile phones to take pictures with the tree.

Further on, Mello noticed a skating rink in front of the big Christmas tree, where many people stood in cue for entering. Mello watched the rink for a while, leaning against the railing. Although the rink limited the number of people entering, the rink seemed very crowded, but the people in the rink didn't seem to care and were all immersed in the joy of skating. It’s incomprehensible to Mello that an activity with so low ratio of return to time cost attracted so many people.

Looking at the huge Christmas tree shining with bright lights, Mello remembered the Christmas tree that Halle had placed in her apartment.

That is what's going on. The Christmas tree was an essential decoration for the ordinary family during winter holidays, just a tradition. It occurred to Mello that Halle must be smiling and having dinner with her family in the room with a Christmas tree. Different from him, Halle had loved ones and loved ones who missed her. Mello didn’t think it was jealousy or anything like that. He had always thought that it was because he had been alone since he was a child that he was able to devote himself to achieving his goal of surpassing Near, despite he remembered the envy and imbalance in his heart when he sneaked out of the Wammy’s House to wander the streets and heard the kids after school bragging about the delicious dinner their parents would prepare for them in the evening.

In Mello's memory, every time Christmas is coming, a Christmas tree would had been placed in common room of Wammy’s house, decorated with socks having each child's name written on it. Children played around the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. Next morning, children received their own Christmas gifts. Of course, children here didn’t believe in Santa Claus. If Santa who had ability to fulfill children's wishes was real, why didn’t he bring their parents to them? Roger would ask the children to write down their most wanted gifts on paper in advance and put paper in envelopes. He told them that there would be small gifts for everyone from L and Mr. Watari in their socks. One Christmas Eve, Mello went to the bathroom after prepping his Latin textbook for the next semester and saw Roger and several other teachers loading presents to socks. He came in the common room when teachers left, then switched some of the children's presents. The next day, some girls received football and baseball caps. Some boys got Barbie dolls and butterfly hairbands. Matt had a set of crayons. Near got a pink make-up mirror. Mello sneered as he leaned on the wall, pretending to know nothing. Mello had no idea how Roger found out it was him. As a result, he stood for a day, wrote a five-thousand-word apology letter and read it in front of all the children. He couldn’t even explain why he had played a prank at that time until now.

“Merry Christmas, sir.” The loud male voice interrupted Mello's meditation as he instinctively touched a gun pinned to his belt. He only found that a man wearing a Santa Claus suit stood at the door of the store and handed out Christmas presents to passers-by to invite them to join the Christmas special event. In the park, people gathered to light the Christmas tree and sing Christmas carols. Mello had been in this country for years. But it was the first time he realized he had never really watched New York, especially, New Your during Christmas holidays, even though New York was the first city of America he had ever stayed in. The only thing he did was try to survive in the first winter since he came to this country. The days and nights of living in the cluttered and dirty basement were still memorable to him, but a little distant. When he came to New York again, he was busy making business deals of Mafia and planning his own plan to defeat Kira.

Suddenly, Mello felt a drop of cold water on his face. He held out his hand, the crystal snowflakes falling on his palm and leaving some faint watermarks on his leather gloves. It was not known when snowflakes had begun to fall. The snow was gradually coming down more heavily as the snowflakes fluttered on Mello's face. He caught the last bus in time. By the time he got off the bus, a thin layer of snow had accumulated on the roadside lawn like icing sugar. The snowy night was so quiet that the rustling sound of snowflakes falling on the ground was so clear. He wore a hoodie and unconsciously quickened his pace. He could see wisps of steam from his mouth under the streetlight. Mello stopped and couldn't help but widen his eyes. A familiar figure stood at the entrance to the apartment building.

The figure turned to him soon.

"Windows are dark. I was wondering if you were sleeping or had gone out..." Halle stood there, dressed in that coat, dragging the suitcase. Her blonde hair was covered with crystal snowflakes, glowing faint silver light under the streetlights.

"Why are you here? I thought you already arrived in your hometown..." Mello's deep gaze seemed to confirm Halle's presence.

"I did. But I realized that I’d forgotten something important, so I came back." Halle smiled at him.

"You forgot something important?" Mello asked in confusion, frowning.

"When I was on the train, I recalled that someone came to me on last Christmas Eve.” Halle paused for a while, as her lips parted. “It's my turn this year." She said calmly.

Mello felt his cheeks heat up, even though the wind was biting. The dim light blurred his expression as he turned his head to the other side. He snorted after a few seconds of silence.

He stammered. "Didn’t you said you were going to surprise your nieces and nephews?"

"Their parents will do it for me."

"You're not afraid you would regret not staying faithfully with your family?" Mumbled Mello.

Halle shook her head and said softly. "It doesn't matter. I met them anyway. I will have a chance to reunite with them later.” She shivered. “I'm gonna be frozen if you keep dawdling. If you don’t want me to be here…"

Mello walked over quickly, interrupting Halle. "I never said that." He grabbed the trolley of her suitcase and strode towards the door.

Halle looked curiously at Mello’s back and followed up. “Have you had your dinner? I haven’t.”

_It’s gonna be Blue Skies for you and I. We’ll step out of the shadows and walk into…_

A quick phone call rang pulled Mello from sleep. He grunted, pulling the covers over his head.

"Yeah, it's nearly 12 o'clock when I got home. Don’t worry about me..."

Mello reluctantly turned over, half-opening and looking up at Halle, who was sitting on the bed with her back against the headboard and holding her cell phone.

"Merry Christmas, Auntie." Mello vaguely heard the childish voices of kids coming from the phone.

"Merry Christmas! Dear.” Halle's voice sounded damn gentle.

Mello stretched out an arm to touched the bedside table. He sighed as he remembered that he had put his cell phone on the living room before going to bed last night. The curtains were drawn too tightly. The faint light that filtered in wasn't even enough for him to speculate on what time it was.

"Annie, what have you got?” Halle paused and looked down to find Mello with his arm around her waist, his head resting on her hip.

"Do you like these gifts?"

"If you continue to be a good girl, Santa Claus will be there for you in the coming year. Sorry, I got to go. Welcome to New York during your school holidays. Bye. "

"Lying adults tell children to be honest. It would be better to give gifts directly to them rather than give them unrealistic fantasy.” Mello muttered with his eyes closed.

Halle frowned, looking down at him suspiciously. "I don't think it's any kind of lie. Kids believe in Santa Claus because they have a desire for caring and love. Parents make up stories just for loving and protecting them."

"But one day they'll know the truth." Mello loosed Halle and looked directly to her eyes.

"Then these wonderful fantasies will become their good memories of childhood." Halle didn’t agree with Mello. She thought for a little and said half-jokingly. "What's wrong? Your wishes haven’t been fulfilled?"

Mello rolled his eyes. "No, I never believed in Santa Claus."

"I think we should have met each other earlier."


End file.
